Robin Barooah

"Given that netbooks running Ubuntu are readily available, and Android tablets are forthcoming, it seems as though your wish is easily granted. Not sure what that has to do with Apple though - they aren't stopping anyone from producing these things." - Robin Barooah

"As I said, I probably shouldn't have mentioned flash - it's a giant distraction. To provide a PC or Netbook experience, the iPad would have to run Windows. Is that what you're really asking for?" - Robin Barooah

"Snark aside, I wasn't defending the closed store model. I was actually asking a serious question because of your point about losing the ability to run working software. I probably shouldn't have mentioned flash because it's such an incendiary topic. Do you really think there was or is an opportunity for a device that has the form factor and usability of the iPad, but that is also compatible with most of the existing software? Google seem to be building an 'open' tablet which may solve the store problem, but it won't solve the compatibility problem. It sounds as though this is what Steve Ballmer is suggesting when he says that Microsoft's iPad answer will run Windows, but the problem with that is they they'll have to wait for Moore's law to make the OS run well and most applications will have to be adapted for the new UI paradigm." - Robin Barooah

"Do you mean to imply that the iPad should have been strictly backwards compatible with the Desktop MaxOSX or Windows so that all the existing software would work unmodified? Sure, Apple is exercising control over iOS in a way that we haven't seen before, and there are certainly negatives to that, but your examples aren't about things they've chosen to filter out for corporate reasons, unless this is just about flash. And if this is about flash, the evidence so far supports Steve Job's statement that there were technical reasons behind the decision too - http://blog.laptopmag.com/mobi... I guess you could say that they are preventing you from installing a desktop OS on your iPad and that would be true, but as far as I know that wouldn't be a solution even if they allowed it because the desktop OS's aren't suitable for that hardware." - Robin Barooah

"I found this pretty stimulating. First of all, I wanted to dismiss it because I think Apple is doing a lot more to improve the world than most companies - the things they make aren't just slicker incremental improvements of what's gone before - they are actually delivering the promise of digital technology that's been waiting in the wings for so many years in a form that people can actually use. They struggle hard against the conventional and keep challenging themselves to take risks in order to achieve this - compared to the majority of technology companies who do simply work incrementally. So I think the charge against Steve Jobs is simply a failure to appreciate Apple in context. However, on reading the piece again I found it harder to dismiss the main point. That although Apple may have a strong appreciation of how to execute technological innovation, in almost every other respect it's more similar to any other industrial corporation than it is different. The question I would love..." - Robin Barooah